Nino Benashvili is a writer and director from Tbilisi, Georgia, based in New York City.

 

She is the first Georgian woman to attend the NYU Tisch Graduate Film program, where she has been named a 2023 BAFTA US Scholar and has been awarded the Maurice Kanbar Scholarship.

 

Her debut narrative short film სადაც დრო იდგა/Where Time Stood Still will compete with the world premiere at 72nd Donostia-San Sebastian Film Festival in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Section.

 

Born during the Georgian Civil War, Nino focused her award-winning documentary

short, ნიქოზის შვილები/Children of Nikozi (2021), on her childhood village of Nikozi, which was bombed during the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. The film has been screened at festivals worldwide, won Bronze Remi at the 2021 Houston WorldFest International Film Festival and aired on PBS. 

 

Nino earned her B.A. from St. John’s College Annapolis, where she double majored in

Philosophy and the History of Science, with a double minor in Classical Studies and

Comparative Literature. In addition to Georgian and English, she is fluent in German

and Russian, and has a working knowledge of Ancient Greek and French.

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